New Delhi: The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) conducted the preliminary examination for recruitment to the post of Clerk across the country on October 4, 5 and 11, 2025. According to experts and candidates after the exam held on October 4, the overall difficulty level of the paper was Easy to Moderate. Candidates reported that the English section was the easiest while the Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude sections were slightly time-consuming.
A Breakdown of Each Exam Section
In the IBPS Clerk Prelims candidates were evaluated across three key areas: English Language, Reasoning Ability and Numerical Ability. The following is a detailed review of each component:
- English Language: Candidates found this section to be the easiest. It included questions on Reading Comprehension (RC) based on topics like “Army dog” and “California Guitar Company.” Additionally, questions were asked from Cloze Test, Error Detection, Word Swap, Sentence Rearrangement and Phrase Replacement. In this section, attempts of 24-26 out of 30 are considered good.
- Reasoning Ability: The difficulty level of this section was Easy to Moderate. It was dominated by Puzzles and Seating Arrangement questions, such as Box-Based Puzzles, Month & Date-Based Puzzles and Circular & Square Seating Arrangements. Furthermore there were questions from Syllogism, Blood Relations, Coding-Decoding and Inequalities. Attempts of 26-28 out of 35 can be considered safe in this section.
- Quantitative Aptitude (Numerical Ability): This section was also of an Easy to Moderate level but was a bit calculative. The focus was on Simplification and Arithmetic. Questions in Data Interpretation (DI) were based on Tables and Bar Graphs. Questions were also asked from the Missing Number Series. An attempt of 25-27 out of 35 would be considered good in this section.
Overall Good Attempts and Next Steps
According to experts, candidates who have accurately solved 75 to 81 questions out of 100 have a very good chance of qualifying for the Mains examination.
What’s Next?
- Admit Card: Candidates whose exams are scheduled for October 5 and 11 can download their admit cards from the official website ibps.in until October 5.
- Answer Key: IBPS will soon release the provisional answer key. It is expected to be released by October 18. Candidates will also be able to raise objections against the answer key.
- Provisional Allotment: Meanwhile IBPS has also released the provisional allotment list for previous recruitment processes of Clerk, PO, SO and RRBs which will be available on the website until October 29, 2025.
For the latest information all candidates should keep monitoring the official IBPS website.
